Kicked-up Canned Pasta Sauce

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Makes: 8 servings adjust
A great way to make a quick, budget-friendly meal is to take plain old canned pasta sauce to the next level by adding a few extras!

Directions

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds Ground Beef, or italian sausage, browned, drained, crumbled

Step 1

Brown off the meat, drain and set aside. This is a great dish for that lump of frozen ground beef lying in the freezer or those marked-down packs of sausage you grabbed on your last grocery trip. If using sausages, either skin them and crumble, or else brown off WHOLE and then slice up.

Ingredients

  • 1 Onion, finely diced
  • 2 Carrots, thinly sliced
  • 1 Bell Pepper, finely diced

Step 2

Saute the onions, carrots, and pepper in a little bit of Olive Oil or a SMALL amount of the fat left from sausages. I don't recommend using the fat from ground beef because I don't care for the taste it gives, but that's up to you.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 1 cup Cauliflower, cut into small florets
  • 1 can Diced Tomatoes
  • 1 jar Marinara Sauce, any red pasta sauce style will do
  • Kosher Salt
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • Garlic Powder
  • Italian Seasoning

Step 3

Add the remaining vegetables and canned goods, and then season to taste. Bring mixture to a low boil, reduce heat, and simmer until broccoli and cauliflower are tender.
 

Step 4

Serve over whatever sort of pasta you like. I used penne when designing this recipe and it worked well. Spaghetti would work also. One last hint: if the sauce is too thick for your liking, add some of the pasta cooking water to thin it to your liking! Buon Mangiare!
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